Watch Juliette Lewis smash a karaoke performance of ‘What’s Up’ behind the scenes of ‘From Dusk Till Dawn’
There really shouldn’t be any debate surrounding just how many movies Quentin Tarantino has made. Pernickety cinephiles will say that he’s already made ten films, not including both Kill Bill volumes as one film, whereas the director himself claims both movies should be considered as one whole. But, aside from this debate, there are his scripts to think about, too. After all, something like 1996’s From Dusk Till Dawn is so relentlessly Tarantino that it could certainly be argued that it should be part of his direct filmography.
Between his debut hit Reservoir Dogs in 1992 and the end of the decade, Tarantino penned three screenplays, including True Romance, Natural Born Killers and From Dusk Till Dawn, with the director’s newfound industry clout helping him to sell off these ideas with ease. While he allowed Tony Scott and Oliver Stone to take the reigns of True Romance and Natural Born Killers, respectively, for better or for worse, he was far more hands-on with the bizarre vampire horror flick From Dusk Till Dawn.
A gory piece of fantasy cinema that speaks to the director’s love for exploitation cinema, the 1996 film tells the story of the Gecko brothers, who are on the run from the law with two hostages in tow. Played by Tarantino and George Clooney, the pair leads their reluctant cargo into a truck stop, and the film takes a massive second-act turn. The gang suddenly finds themselves defending themselves from a hoard of vampires.
While the camp aesthetics of the film and the gratuitous gore keep audiences entertained, it is the collective performances of the lead cast that give the film proper longevity, with Tarantino and Clooney being joined by Harvey Keitel and Juliette Lewis. The result is some sort of gory vaudeville performance in which the gang try to, often comically, evade the fangs of the fantastical beasts in order to survive until sunrise.
The film is one of Tarantino’s greatest romps, and behind the scenes, the movie was equally enjoyable, with the documentary Full Tilt Boogie proving this beyond doubt. An extensive, feature-long document of the film’s entire shoot, the movie included interviews with the cast and interestingly also captured the controversy of the shoot, which used non-union crew members.
Yet, fans of From Dusk Till Dawn will, no doubt, be most interested in the scintillating karaoke performance Juliette Lewis partakes in while Clooney and Tarantino watch on. A mere 23 years of age in the short clip, Lewis gives an impassioned performance of ‘What’s Up?’ by 4 Non Blondes while the esteemed director of Reservoir Dogs smokes a cigar while donning a Pulp Fiction t-shirt.
Take a look at the criminally underappreciated blast from the 1990s below.
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